January 22, 2013

If you could do it nonstop, it would take you six days to
walk from Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond to President Barack Obama's White
House. For the Sierra Club, that journey has taken much longer. For 120 years,
we have remained committed to using every "lawful means" to achieve
our objectives. Now, for the first time in our history, we are prepared to go
further.

Next month, the Sierra Club will officially participate in
an act of peaceful civil resistance. We'll be following in the hallowed
footsteps of Thoreau, who first articulated the principles of civil
disobedience 44 years before John Muir founded the Sierra Club.

Some of you might wonder what took us so long. Others might
wonder whether John Muir is sitting up in his grave. In fact, John Muir had
both a deep appreciation for Thoreau and a powerful sense of right and wrong.
And it's the issue of right versus wrong that has brought the Sierra Club to
this unprecedented decision.

For civil disobedience to be justified, something must be so
wrong that it compels the strongest defensible protest. Such a protest, if
rendered thoughtfully and peacefully, is in fact a profound act of patriotism.
For Thoreau, the wrongs were slavery and the invasion of Mexico. For Martin
Luther King, Jr., it was the brutal, institutionalized racism of the Jim Crow
South. For us, it is the possibility that the United States might surrender any
hope of stabilizing our planet's climate.

As President Obama eloquently said during his inaugural
address, "You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates
of our time, not only with the votes we cast, but the voices we lift in defense
of our most ancient values and enduring ideas."

As citizens, for us to give up on stopping runaway global
temperatures would be all the more tragic if it happened at the very moment
when we are seeing both tremendous growth in clean energy and firsthand
evidence of what extreme weather can do. Last year, record heat and drought
across the nation wiped out half of our corn crop and 60 percent of our
pasturelands. Wildfires in Colorado, Texas, and elsewhere burned nearly nine
million acres. And superstorm Sandy brought devastation beyond anyone's
imagining to the Eastern Seaboard.

We are watching a global crisis unfold before our eyes, and
to stand aside and let it happen -- even though we know how to stop it
-- would be unconscionable. As the president said on Monday, "to do so
would betray our children and future generations." It couldn't be
simpler: Either we leave at least two-thirds of the known fossil fuel reserves
in the ground, or we destroy our planet as we know it. That's our choice, if
you can call it that.

The Sierra Club has refused to stand by. We've worked hard
and brought all of our traditional tactics of lobbying, electoral work,
litigation, grassroots organizing, and public education to bear on this crisis.
And we have had great success -- stopping more than 170 coal plants from being
built, securing the retirement of another 129 existing plants, and helping grow
a clean energy economy. But time is running out, and there is so much more to
do. The stakes are enormous. At this point, we can't afford to lose a single
major battle. That's why the Sierra Club's Board of Directors has for the first
time endorsed an act of peaceful civil disobedience.

In doing so, we're issuing a challenge to President Obama,
who spoke stirringly in his inaugural address about how America must lead the
world on the transition to clean energy. Welcome as those words were, we need
the president to match them with strong action and use the first 100 days of
his second term to begin building a bold and lasting legacy of clean energy and
climate stability.

That means rejecting the dangerous tar sands pipeline that
would transport some of the dirtiest oil on the planet, and other reckless
fossil fuel projects from Northwest coal exports to Arctic drilling. It means
following through on his pledge to double down again on clean energy, and cut
carbon pollution from smokestacks across the country. And, perhaps most of all,
it means standing up to the fossil fuel corporations that would drive us over
the climate cliff without so much as a backward glance.

One of my favorite quotes is from Martin Luther King, Jr.,
although it has its roots in the writings of Theodore Parker (an acquaintance
of Henry David Thoreau): "The arc of the moral universe is long but it
bends toward justice." I believe that, given sufficient time, our
government would certainly follow the moral arc that leads to decisive action
on this crisis. We have a democracy, and the tide of public
opinion has shifted decisively. What's more, I doubt that even the most ardent
climate denier actually wants to destroy our world.

We have a clear understanding of the crisis. We have
solutions. What we don't have is time. We cannot afford to wait, and neither
can President Obama.

January 14, 2013

I'm knee-deep in reading the draft version of the U.S. National Climate Assessment,
released last Friday. If last year's record number of wildfires, droughts, and
extreme heat days, not to mention the devastation of superstorm Sandy, didn't
convince you of the dangers of a destabilizing climate, then perhaps this
several-hundred page report from 240 of the country's top climate scientists
will.

To quote one of Barack Obama's favorite singer/songwriters: "It's
not dark yet, but it's getting there." Fortunately, although the science
of climate disruption is undeniably scary, there's still time to turn the
corner and put this nation on a path to meet the emissions reductions we need
to avoid catastrophe.

Here's the challenge. In his first term, President Obama did
more than any other president to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and scale up
clean energy. But his administration is far from realizing its potential for
strong action. In fact, the president has considerable authority that he has
not yet fully used to help our country build a clean energy economy.

That's why today the Sierra Club is launching the Obama
Climate and Clean Energy Legacy Campaign -- a joint effort across our campaigns
to demand that the president tackle climate disruption with all the authority,
determination, and ambition he can muster. Between now and Earth Day, we'll
focus on 100 Days of Action to set the tone for this term's critical first
year. We and our allies will host events across the country calling on the
president to lead in this fight. The biggest of these, in Washington, D.C., on
February 17, is shaping up to be the largest climate rally in American history.

January 06, 2013

Last
March, I wrote about how Royal Dutch Shell was "preemptively" suing the Sierra Club to stop us from making
the case that drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean is risky and unsafe. As it
turned out, Shell then spent the rest of 2012 making that argument far more
convincingly than we could have. Shell ended the year with one of its drill
ships grounded dangerously on a rocky Gulf of Alaska shore near Kodiak Island.
But the company's problems started long before that.

On the
way up to Alaska, Shell lost control of the drill ship Nobel Discoverer, and
the company's oil-spill containment dome was damaged during a failed sea trial
off the comparatively mild coast of Washington. Not an auspicious start.

Then,
after claiming that it could clean up 95 percent of a major oil spill in the
Arctic, Shell backtracked to say that it would only
"encounter" that much spilled oil. It also brought enormous
political pressure to secure a Clean Air
Act waiver for higher levels of particulate-matter, nitrogen-oxides, and
ammonia pollution and pushed the Coast Guard to lower safety standards for its
oil-spill response barge, the Arctic Challenger. As of last week, the Coast
Guard was investigating the crew of the Noble Discoverer for possible
violations of federal law.

But the
grounding over New Year's of the drill ship Kulluk, with more than 150,000
gallons of oil on board, has to be the final straw. Thankfully, the Coast Guard
was able to rescue the rig's 18-person crew, but not before a hellish 18 hours
of 40-mph-plus winds and 35-foot seas in the dark Arctic winter.

The
grounding of the Kulluk points to a common thread in Shell's Arctic
misadventures: greed. Originally, the drill ship was supposed to stay in Dutch
Harbor over the winter. What prompted Shell's sudden decision to move the
Kulluk and the Noble Discoverer out of the state before January 1, 2013 by
undertaking a risky crossing of the Gulf of Alaska? The company wanted to avoid paying millions
in taxes by exiting Alaska.

What
Shell's doing in the Arctic is a perfect lesson in the deadly allure of
"extreme" oil. Whether it's deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico,
digging for tar sands oil in the forests of Canada, or attempting to drill in
Alaska's Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, the risks and dangers far outweigh any
possible benefit beyond a thirst for profits.

And
even if we could justify risking pristine Arctic wilderness, the habitat for
dozens of threatened and endangered species, and the livelihoods of Alaska's
indigenous people (which we can't), there's still the problem of climate
disruption. The U.S. government estimates 26 billion barrels of oil might be
under the Arctic Ocean. Even if we could safely get to that oil, burning and
releasing that much carbon pollution into our atmosphere would mean a global
climate disaster. The International Energy Agency estimates that two-thirds of known
global fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground if we are to have a shot at
stabilizing warming at 2 degrees Celsius, which itself is a risky target -- more
than double the warming we’ve already felt.

For Shell, 2012 was a year of dangerous mishaps that show why oil cannot be safely drilled from the Arctic Ocean. For the rest of us, it was a year of climate disasters -- from droughts and wildfires to record heat and the superstorm Sandy -- that show why it's more important than ever that we move beyond oil for good.

January 04, 2013

I'm sorry to disappoint anyone who believed the Mayan calendar prediction that the world would end this month, but the truth is, 2012 has turned out to be a great year for democracy, the planet, and the Sierra Club.

Our democracy had a great year because our citizens demonstrated yet again that they can't be duped by slick ads and shameless spin from a fossil-fuel industry that is more than willing to corrupt the democratic process in pursuit of profit.

The planet had a great year because American voters, by and large, elected leaders and passed initiatives that will accelerate the move from dirty, economically questionable 19th-century fossil fuels to wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources that are rapidly leading us to a healthier, more prosperous future.

And the Sierra Club had a great year on every front, from our successes in helping good, pro-environment candidates and initiatives win nationwide to our many victories against the forces that would pollute our air and water, undermine public health, and quicken the climate disruption that is already affecting so many of us with extreme weather events like the superstorm Hurricane Sandy.

We should all be proud of our accomplishments this year. Of course, to continue to succeed, we need the Sierra Club grow bigger, stronger, more diverse, and more effective, and so I'm particularly proud to note that in 2012 we have done just that.

A couple of years ago, Bloomberg Philanthropies gave a $50 million gift to the Club to support our groundbreaking work in taking on the coal industry. One of our commitments was to plunge into the places where young and diverse audiences gather these days and invite them to join us in our work.

Reaching out on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media hangouts, the Sierra Club persuaded a million new activists to take an action on our behalf this year. These folks have now added their voices to those of the 1.4 million members and supporters who already sign Sierra Club petitions to retire polluting coal plants, march against dirty tar sands pipelines, pitch in to clean up streams, lead hikes in California's San Gabriel mountains, or gather to discuss protection of beautiful places and wild creatures in Sierra Club chapters nationwide.

Like many nonprofit groups, the Sierra Club is eager to understand how this new breed of online activist prefers to participate in our efforts. Part of the reason we've worked so hard to invite new folks into our fold is so we can tap their ideas about how to engage, interact, and organize.

One thing we've already learned from our activists is that young people and people of color embrace our mission. The pollution from coal-fired power plants, for instance, disproportionately harms minority communities, and our coal work in cities like Detroit and Chicago, as well the southwestern U.S., has strengthened our ties to both Latino and African-American groups. A survey conducted jointly by the Sierra Club and the National Council of La Raza found overwhelming support for both clean energy and environmental stewardship among Latinos. At the same time, climate disruption remains a key issue for young activists, who have been strong supporters on the ground of both our Beyond Coal campaign and our work to stop the Keystone XL pipeline.

Working with an ever larger and more diverse group of passionate activists is important. Thanks to the work of the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, we are beginning to make meaningful progress in the daunting fight against climate disruption. In large part because of the Sierra Club's successful Beyond Coal campaign, the U.S. led the world in reducing carbon emissions this year. We also realized the payoff of a decades-long effort to encourage stronger mileage standards for automobiles. This victory alone will ultimately drive U.S. carbon emissions down by another 10 percent.

These important successes should encourage us all. Hard though it would have been to believe just a few years ago, we are beginning to win in the still-monumental effort to address climate disruption. Now, with more than two million members and supporters who embrace the Club's motto: "Explore, enjoy and protect the planet," we have even more to celebrate as we ring in 2013.

So please allow me to offer this toast: Welcome aboard newcomers! Now let's get to work. It's going to be a busy year.